


Happy Ending

by Sithindor



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Ending, Ben lives, F/M, One Shot, that's it that's the whole fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21938563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sithindor/pseuds/Sithindor
Summary: It says it all in the tags. Ben should have lived, just saying. I thought we, as a society, were over redeeming our villains and then killing them?I'm not salty.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 67





	Happy Ending

**Author's Note:**

> Don't get me wrong, I LOVED The Rise of Skywalker. But half the reason I loved the sequels is because of Ben Solo. His death has been tearing me apart for days. He deserved better. 
> 
> Writing this was really therapeutic for me, so maybe it will be the same for you.

She kissed him.

She kissed him, and he smiled. She saw her entire happy ending stretching out before her, and she rejoiced. But then he fell.

She felt the life go out of him the moment his hold loosened on her, but she wouldn’t allow it. Before he hit the floor, her hands were on him, giving him back a bit of the life he had given to her.

Ben’s eyebrows scrunched and he coughed, just as the healing caught up to Rey and she collapsed beside him. Ben grabbed her forearm and squeezed, and she squeezed him back reassuringly. She was okay. Weak, but okay. 

“You’re alive,” Ben said, and he sounded like a child. “How?”

“I didn’t overkill,” Rey smiled.

And then  _ he _ kissed  _ her _ .

They must have stayed in that haunted place for hours. Neither had the strength in them to walk, and Ben had hurt his leg badly when he was thrown off the cliff. So instead, they talked. Ben tried to apologize for the pain he had caused her. He tried to tell her how guilty he felt about his parents. Rey would have none of it. It had all been Palpatine. He had even been influencing Rey, and she was a trained Jedi. Ben had only been a child. 

Rey would never forgive Palpatine. Ben's ancestors had been calling him from the Light all along, and Palpatine had shrouded their calls in Darkness. But there was no use in being angry now.

So instead, Rey told him everything she knew about his parents. They had not given up on him, and they gave their lives trying to help him. To this, Ben began to cry, but Rey assured him that wasn’t her point. His parents were so full of love for him, she said, and they would be so proud to see him as he was now. They would have given their lives a thousand times to see it. 

She told him of how even she had always believed in the light inside him. How she hadn’t stopped trying to reach him.

She wanted to tell him about the Resistance, about Finn and Poe and everyone he would meet when they were strong enough to make it home. But she was afraid this might scare him off. She remained silent about it.

Eventually they had rested enough to move. With Rey as Ben’s crutch, they limped out to Exegol’s surface and hauled themselves into Red 5. As lightning flashed all about them, they flew off into the empty sky.

When Rey landed Red 5 in the center of the Resistance base, all celebration stopped. Everyone stared. Rey lifted the canopy just in time to see Finn, Poe, and BB-8 push to the front of the crowd.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Ben muttered, lowering himself in his seat.

“Nonsense,” Rey said.

The plan had been to hop out of the X-Wing and wave to the crowd to its thunderous applause, but the moment her feet hit the ground, she crumpled. Finn took her limp body into his arms and crushed her in a bear hug. She hardly had enough strength to hug him back.

“Finn… Poe… in the ship… Ben…” she managed.

“What?” they both said.

“Ben. He’s good.”

The three looked up at Red 5 as Ben Solo peeked down at them. Everyone else noticed him at the same time, and he found hundreds of blasters raised at him.

“He’s  _ good _ ,” Rey urged.

Poe looked from Rey, weak and bloody and  _ earnest _ , to his troops. He stifled a sigh. “Stand down.”

Rey passed out.

When Rey woke up, she was in an infirmary, with Ben in the bed beside her. He was asleep and breathing peacefully. Rey smiled. For the first time, maybe in her whole life, she felt whole. She had done it. She had deciphered her past and won the war and even saved the one she loved. She hadn’t realized that she loved him, not until she kissed him. She hadn’t realized that he loved her, not until he brought her back from the dead. 

With a light heart, she fell back into dreamless sleep.

The next day, Finn and Poe came to visit. Rey and Ben were both feeling much better. At least, they were capable of staying awake for most of the day. Walking was a whole different issue.

Finn elbowed Poe as they walked through the door. “Look, they’re awake.”

“We can hear you,” Rey said. “Near-death, not near-deaf.”

“We came to see you yesterday and you were out cold,” Poe said. “It’s good to know you’re okay.” He glanced briefly to Ben. 

Rey noticed it. So did Ben.

“I told you yesterday, he’s  _ good _ ,” Rey said, suddenly heated. “What else do you want--?”

“Rey, it’s alright,” Ben said. “I’ve done a lot of bad things to a lot of good people. I know I have much to atone for.” He offered her another smile, and it melted her heart.

“Alright, well,” she started, though her brain was muddled from that smile, “trust has to start from somewhere. Finn, Poe, you trust me, right? I trust Ben. Could you please trust him too? For me?”

Poe muttered, “You said ‘trust’ way too many times.”

“But you’re right,” Finn said. “I trust you, and I trust your judgement. Which is why I’ll tell you what I wanted to tell you before in front of him.”

“And in front of me?” Poe said with mock excitement.

“And in front of you.” Finn paused.

“Well, go on,” Rey urged.

“Turns out, I’m Force-sensitive.”

“What?!” Rey shrieked, and hugged him.

The next few days were hectic. Ben was tried before a council of Resistance higher-ups. Luckily, Finn and Poe were both on the council. The two of them, as well as Rey, argued for Ben. Rey explained how Palpatine has plagued the Skywalker family from its beginning. She told the council how the Sith could corrupt minds, both young and old. How Ben was hardly more than a child when his master, Luke, failed him, just as Anakin Skywalker had been failed by his masters. Palpatine had been manipulating Ben the whole time. Ben had been called to the Light, but Palpatine had prevented him from pursuing it.

She must have been convincing, because the council grudgingly let him off with no more than community service.

When the trial was over, Rey rejoiced, but Ben was somber. He was plagued by guilt and nightmares. He dreamed he was kneeling before Snoke again, or worse, Palpatine. Rey saw his struggle. It was hard to let go of the past, no matter how hard you tried. She knew what he needed: a connection back to the Light to purge the memories of the Dark.

She gathered Ben and Finn and they began training.

At the end of a couple months, Rey, Ben, and Finn had become… something. Finn grew more and more powerful with the Force, and soon all three of them were good enough to be considered Jedi masters. But when they forged their new lightsabers, they were not blue or green or even purple. They were yellow. 

They were not the rebirth of the Jedi. They were something new.

Ben was better every day. First it was that unyielding knot in the pit of his stomach that unraveled. Then, the night terrors slowly but surely grew fewer and farther between. He had Rey to comfort him. He had Rey to love him. Sometimes at night, he would hold her close to him and just relish in the thought that they had made it. This was it. This was their happy ending.

As he hurt less, he smiled more, that same smile he had given Rey after she kissed him the first time. He thought he was going to die permanently back there. He thought that would be his last smile. He thanked the Force that it wasn’t. He couldn’t imagine not knowing what it was to be happy.

One day, Rey approached him, dressed like she was ready to fly. “Come with me,” she said.

“Where?”

“On a pilgrimage.” He noticed, then, that both his mother's and his uncle’s lightsabers were attached to her belt. “Back to where it all started. Let’s go to Tatooine.”


End file.
